It’s a Hard-Knock Life for Them

I used to think that if I closed myself off

To anyone or anything then life would turn

out okay

I guess it’s fair to say that my innocence

was lost

but the child inside me is still alive.

--Averie Boyer from “Inappropriate”

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Averie Boyer was the child of a typical dysfunctional American family. By age 13 he was hooked on drugs, stealing, running from the law. He says his father left the family when he was a young boy. He drove his mother crazy. He wrote his father many letters, hoping one day the man would return.

Last year, Boyer made one final attempt to reach his father. He sent the man he had not seen for 11 years a letter, a program and a videotape of the off-Broadway show he was starring in. After so many years of running around lost, high on drugs, Boyer had cleaned up his act. He was now a star student at the DeSisto School, a boarding school in Boston for children with problems.

“Maybe now that I’m doing well, he’ll talk to me,” Boyer said to himself, recalling his move. “I was like, ‘Oh, why not try?’ I’d asked him to come and see me for 11 years. And finally he did.”

Boyer’s dad witnessed not only the blossoming of his 18-year-old son into a creative, productive young adult but also the catharsis of eight teenagers--all starring in a play called “Inappropriate.” The title refers to their behavior always being deemed inappropriate. Their traumas inspired the narrative for a modern coming-of-age story in America dealing with drug abuse, absent parents, sexual abuse, eating disorders, divorced families, violence and anger. And judging by the success, it’s touching a chord.

The home-grown musical, which began modestly in the drama department of Michael DeSisto’s boarding school, made a three-month off-Broadway run last year to glowing reviews. DeSisto and musical writer Michael Sottile’s Butterfly Productions raised enough money to book a theater off-Broadway for an initial one-week run, and it was successful enough to last three months.

The show is now playing at the Coronet Theater in Los Angeles through April 30. After their Los Angeles run, the producers hope to move the show to Broadway. Some in Hollywood are apparently interested in turning it into a movie.

The one-hour musical is a tapestry of wrenching stories taken from DeSisto students’ journals. It is theatrical therapy for a group of teenagers--who could be the teenager next door.

Take 18-year-old Adam Schiffman, singing “The Dream,” addressed to an overbearing parent:

Your finger points and puts me down

Your words slice me like a knife

Informing me to measure up

To your own standards

you say I need to make you proud

and become more like you . . . well . . .

you are not my idol.

Or, a more extreme case, “Dear Dad” sung by the four girls in the production, Mia Benenate, Elizabeth Irwin, Amanda Bayless and Diane Schwartz:

I used to have bad dreams about the two of us

And you doin’ stuff to me

I got it into my head that

this is what happened.

So what’s the reality, daddy?

What’s the reality?

Did it happen?

Did it happen?

These are the kids who have befuddled society lately--the children of affluence and comfort who have terrifying and violent outbursts.

Their blossoming into productive, creative human beings is a lesson for society, said screenwriter Alan Shapiro--once a disturbed teen himself and a graduate of the DeSisto School--who helped bring the production to Los Angeles.

“All of the issues that brought them to the school are very much there and raw,” said Shapiro, who has bought the rights to the play and hopes to turn it into a movie. “The kids have been thrown into this crucible, and it makes for a lot of drama and humor and love stories and weird relationships. But it’s all very exciting because the kids are feeling more alive than they have ever been.”

Michael DeSisto, founder of the school, was rummaging through piles of students’ journals one afternoon six years ago wondering what to do with them. As he looked through the journals, part of the seniors’ graduation theses, his friend and the school’s drama director Lonnie McNeil also read the stories and recognized the dramatic potential. So the pair hired a writer, Sottile. They compressed the material into 12 songs touching on common themes including sexual promiscuity, drug abuse, divorce. Although Sottile wrote the material, he tried to retain the teens’ voice.

“The kids are confused,” said Sottile, who is 34. “Sometimes we get some flak for keeping that confusion in the text. But that is really the point. We wanted to capture the confusion and the simplicity of the confusion.”

They raised enough money for a one-week run at an off-Broadway theater. Sadly, McNeil died a day before the play’s premiere in New York last May. Despite the pain of losing one of the play’s creators, the troupe kept going. And to their amazement their run was extended to three months.

The musical received rave reviews--not so much for its musical brilliance--but for the energy, charm and guts these kids show, none of whom are professionals.

Before it closed, DeSisto told Shapiro about the production and urged him to see it in New York. Shapiro saw it and then helped bring the production to Los Angeles. Randy Jackson and his family saw the show that night in Los Angeles and was blown away.

“This is a very humanist story,” said Jackson. “It’s bigger than the play. None of our lives are perfect. When you see a play like this it really touches home.”

The Jackson family stepped in to finance the monthlong Los Angeles run. Jackson’s Modern Records is also producing the second “Inappropriate” album.

DeSisto feels as if the play has a developed life of its own.

“I just get overwhelmed,” said DeSisto. “I sometimes feel that this is a project that has nothing to do with me. That there is a higher power whose work I’m doing . . . and I just sort of hang on and do what I’m told to do.”

DeSisto, himself a “troubled child,” discovered his passion for helping children early on.

“I can’t throw a baseball, I was lousy in football, so I started teaching school in the eighth grade,” he said. “The only reason a kid ever got in trouble was when they made adults feel impotent. Kids are looking for ways of quieting their discomfort.”

So, in 1978 DeSisto founded his school on a leafy New England campus, 150 miles west of Boston. To be sure, these are mainly children of affluence, with tuition costing more than $60,000 a year. Eighty-five percent of the student body is white. Still, for those who can afford it, the school’s 100 students are on a rigorous academic program, with the goal being college acceptance.

About 65% of the students admitted graduate. Of those, 90% go on to college. In addition to academics, the children have therapy sessions and come to rely on one another for guidance and support. They find creative outlets for their anger, like theater, film, music and sports. And the parents must participate in the program.

“We are not a dry-cleaning service--we are not here to pick up your dirty laundry and then send it back cleaned up,” said Sean Alazraki, associate executive director of the school. “Parents have more control over things than they claim.”

There is no need for faux angst in this show. In fact, one of the girls in the show was sent back to the school because DeSisto was worried she was falling into depression and was planning to run away.

These kids are every parent’s worst nightmare. Drug addicts, hustlers, truants, thieves. Many of the kids are addicted to Ritalin. Many of the kids come from two-parent households--not all come from divorced family settings.

Take Diane Schwartz, the show’s earthiest voice. She barely remembers that night three years ago when her parents found her lying, nearly dead from an overdose of over-the-counter medicine. She didn’t want to kill herself. She only wanted to empty her stomach of all the food she’d eaten. After too many times of forcing her finger down her throat, her body would not cooperate anymore.

After a monthlong stay at the hospital, her parents shipped her off, kicking and screaming, to the DeSisto School.

It was the best thing that could’ve happened to the 18-year-old New Jersey native.

“I was really angry at my parents because they were sending me away,” she said. “But then after a while [at the school] I broke down and I realized how much I didn’t like myself and how I didn’t think I was worthy.”

Participating in the musical has been a key part of her recovery, said Schwartz. In fact, director Sottile wrote one of the songs, “Real,” for Schwartz, who commands a mighty stage presence with her booming voice.

If the insecurities that I conceal so well

Weren’t overshadowed with the tears of my pride

If I could learn to forgive you and forgive myself

If I could shed the mask that I hide behind.

Shedding those insecurities offstage is something she still struggles with.

“When I’m onstage I feel very free, very confident,” she said. “It’s been a process to bring the Diane on stage to the Diane in my real life.”

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“INAPPROPRIATE,” Coronet Theatre, 368 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles. Dates: Wednesday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 2 p.m. Ends April 30. Prices: $25 to $35. Phone: (213) 365-3500 or (310) 657-7377.